The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Frannie writes of how the white abolitionists who come to talk to her are always asking about what was done to her, and she thinks about how it would horrify them to know that she followed Langton of her own accord in London. She writes that it isn’t only bodies that suffer but minds too. Going back to her recounting of her and Langton’s arrival in London, she writes that they travel to a public house in Covent Garden to meet a man named Pomfrey. Pomfrey earned his income from slavery before the law against selling enslaved people was put into effect. Now he ships skulls, over 600 of which Langton bought from him and forced Frannie to handle. Langton and Pomfrey discuss Parliament, with Pomfrey expressing his doubt that full abolition will be granted. Langton and Pomfrey continue to talk, with both men being extremely dismissive of Frannie and Pomfrey repeatedly making lewd implications about her.

They leave the public house to call on Benham. He lives in a fine townhouse, which Frannie observes as the white servant, Mrs. Linux, lets her and Langton in. She notices how much more polite Langton is to the white servant. Mrs. Linux tells Frannie she must scrub her hands, and when Frannie protests to Langton, she realizes he is giving her to Benham as a gift. He slaps her, to the shock of both Frannie and Linux. A kitchen maid named Pru is summoned to bring Frannie to the room they will share. Frannie is devastated at becoming a maid again after her work reading scientific texts and acting as Langton’s assistant. Pru is surprised that Frannie didn’t know she was to be left at the Benham’s, and says Benham is going to be the greatest mind in England. After a while of restlessness, Frannie at last retires to her pallet in the attic room she shares with Pru.

The next morning Linux tells Frannie the rules of the house, making it clear she does not want her there. Frannie writes that she is numbed by the mindlessness of the work, and that she forgot that she wasn’t owned by Langton in England. During her work in the Benham’s house she is sent to clean the library. Frannie finds a copy of Candide and, on a strange impulse, hides it in her skirt.

Benham enters the room after she has done this. She confesses to taking Candide, which he does not seem to care about. They begin to discuss Frannie’s education, with Benham saying that it had been a kind of wager between himself and Langton. Frannie writes that she wonders if this meeting was the starting point on the path that led her to the cell she’s in. She writes that those around her want to view her as a “savage,” but that if she is one it is because that is what Benham and Langton turned her into.

The chapter ends with a transcript of Linux’s appearance at Frannie’s trial, in which she blames Frannie for any problems, and says that the rumors of a love affair between Frannie and Benham’s wife are a lie.

Frannie continues to work, upset by the fact that Benham wants her to tell him about what Langton made her do at Paradise. While working with Pru she meets Meg, Benham’s wife. Pru remarks that “Madame” is feeling better and notes that she seemed to like Frannie. The chapter ends with a newspaper clipping from the Morning Post which discusses Meg’s odd, adventurous nature and foreshadows the future complicated developments between Meg and Laddie Cambridge.

The servants at Levenhall, Benham’s home, discuss Meg’s struggle with melancholy, with Linux expressing frustration with her disinterest in household affairs. Frannie is sent to black the grates in the parlor, where Meg is sitting. They end up discussing books, with Meg expressing her frustration with the limitations of married life. Meg is impressed that Frannie has read Milton, and expresses excitement at her presence. Linux enters and begins to scold Frannie for talking to Meg, but Meg stops her.

That evening Pru tells Frannie that Linux can’t forgive Meg for being French. Frannie wishes Meg could have met her when she was a scribe, not a maid. The chapter ends with a journal entry from Benham, discussing Frannie and her intelligence, his and Langton’s phrenological experiments, and his distaste for Langton. He writes of making Frannie tell him about Langton’s experiments and her reluctance to do so. His transcription of their conversation indicates she does not answer his questions about whether Langton used her or any others as live specimens, and she insists that she doesn’t remember nor does she want to.

Frannie writes that she didn’t know what she was worth after arriving in England, and how she had simply traded one enslaver for another. Going back to her account of life at the Benham’s, she tells of Linux forcing her to change her nice dress into one of the simpler ones she has brought for her. Linux scolds Frannie for supposedly flirting with Charles, the manservant. Linux has misconstrued a scene where Charles asks Frannie “how you sleep on white sheets without getting them mucked” (118).

From Charles, Frannie learns that Langton, the “colonial,” is in the house. She thinks of the questioning Benham put her through, and of her disgust with Langton’s experiments. Meg catches Frannie eavesdropping through the library door on Langton and Benham. Meg finds this amusing. She then says she has no choice but to present herself to them, leaving Frannie in the hallway.

The chapter ends with the court testimony of Charles Pruitt. He paints Meg as a gallivanting radical, and expresses regret that he didn’t tell Benham of his suspicions.

One cold afternoon Linux makes a fruitcake and the servants gather in the kitchen. Mr. Casterwick, the butler-valet, begins to play the violin. Meg appears in the kitchen to the discomfort of the servants. Linux tries to get her to go upstairs but Meg stays, telling Casterwick to keep playing. She then insists that everyone dance, partnering herself with Frances. Frances is excited by the attention and taken in by the dancing. Linux’s obvious displeasure does not dampen her mood. She begins to recognize her feelings of desire for Meg.

One morning Linux sends Pru and Frannie to fetch Meg from the park. The two split up to search for her. Frannie finds Meg, who is happy to see her. Meg asks her how she could have learned to read in such a dreadful place as Paradise, and Frannie thinks about how reading was the one solace she had. Aloud she tells Meg that it was a wager between Benham and Langton. Meg calls them “perfectly awful” and Frannie reveals that no matter how she learned she was happy to have an escape. Meg commiserates with her. As they talk Frannie again recognizes the desire she feels for Meg.

They meet up with Pru, and come across a fair as they walk back. Someone makes a racist comment about Frannie, which she pretends to not mind. That evening she has a nightmare about being put on show like the animals at the fair. The chapter ends with testimony transcript of Pru defending Frannie as a character witness in court, saying that she didn’t believe that Frannie could have murdered anyone.

Langton is invited to dinner at the Benham’s house. Frannie is hurt by Meg’s cold attitude toward her during the dinner. She thinks about how Linux told her to be invisible, and of Linux insisting that she doesn’t hate Frannie but that there is a “natural order” that must be followed. Meg asks Langton about the book he is working on, and convinces him to discuss it. She argues with him over his conclusions and is disgusted by his use of dead bodies for experimentation without getting consent. She accuses Langton of confirmation bias because his findings are just what he wanted to find.

Frannie’s anger grows, and she realizes she is angry at herself for always doing what she was told to do. Frannie speaks, asking Langton if he will ever suffer for what he has done. Linux sees this, and when they return to the kitchen, she slaps Frannie and Casterwick protests. Linux splashes Frannie with boiling water, which leaves a scar. Later in the attic room, Pru comes with fat to treat Frannie’s burns, and Frannie worries that she will be turned out. Pru says she was worried something bad would happen, and Frannie realizes Pru has disobeyed Linux in order to come help her. Pru asks who Langton is to Frannie, and Frannie tells her that Langton is her father.

Frannie remembers that it was Miss-bella who told her that Langton was her father, and how angry she was at both of them. At Benham’s, when she goes downstairs the morning after the dinner, she finds a small pile of coins on the table and believes Linux is about to turn her out. Linux tells her to see Meg instead.

Meg begins to discuss literature and philosophy with Frannie, telling her she isn’t going to be sent away. She says she wanted to applaud when Frannie confronted Langton, and expresses her disagreement with Langton’s views. She tells her that Linux will not be allowed to hurt her again and tells Frannie about how she wants to dismiss Linux but that Benham won’t let her. She begins to read to Frannie from Rousseau’s Confessions. Meg tells Frannie that she feels they understand each other, and that as she has decided to write, she wants Frannie to be her secretary. Frannie knows that this is still service, but despite her misgivings, she is excited at the prospect.

Frannie thinks of how upset the idea of two women in a room alone can make men, and how, when she entered Newgate prison, her one letter from Meg was taken away from her to punish her. Continuing her narrative of life at the Benham’s, she writes about how different it was to work for Meg than for Miss-bella. The first morning, Meg stands up naked and asks Frannie to wash her. Frannie continues to remember Phibbah and Miss-bella, but in the small cozy room with Meg she feels content. The chapter ends with a continuation of Linux’s statements in court. Linux tells the prosecution about repeatedly seeing Frannie go to Meg’s room at night.

Frannie writes that her only confession is to be a woman who loved another woman. She writes of Meg’s work on a confession in the style of Rousseau. She learns Meg’s family fled to England from France when she was young, and her father became a tutor to a rich family, which is how Benham met Meg.

Meg begins reading Frankenstein to Frannie. She tells Frannie that she thinks women need to think about the world and not just live in it. Meg begins hosting salons which Frannie also attends. She is frustrated by the abolitionists who attend because they want only to hear about her suffering.

Frannie then writes that she must tell of an incident with Benham and Meg in the parlor. Frannie returns from the kitchen with a snack for Meg and finds her and Behnam there in tense silence. Benham asks why something isn’t in storage and Meg says she had it returned to its place. Frannie finds out they are speaking of the portrait of a Black servant. It is a young man Benham brought to London from Antigua whom he recently asked to leave.

Another morning Frannie comes in to find Meg burning all the pages of her writing. Meg appears to be drunk, but Frannie realizes it is actually laudanum. Meg begins telling her about Olaudah or Laddie, the Black servant Mr. Benham turned out of the house. She then says that Benham will never be happy unless her writing is worse than his.

Meg confesses that she married Benham for his money and that he married her for her beauty. As time goes on, Frannie gets to know the ladies Meg spends time with. She particularly dislikes one of them named Hephzibah Elliot. She is envious of the belonging amongst Meg and her friends. Frannie feels like an outcast and has no outlet for her desire for Meg. She thinks about sneaking into her room, but is stopped when Linux spots her.

The chapter ends with Hephzibah Elliot’s court testimony, where she relates that the night before Benham and Meg died Frannie told Meg in front of everyone at the party “This is death” (132). Pettigrew cross-examines Elliot, in an attempt to show that the phrase may not have been a threat, due to the use of present tense. During cross examination, Elliot reveals her prejudice in admitting her assumption that Frannie’s command of the English language was probably poor, despite rarely hearing a word from her.

Frannie writes of how hot it is in her cell, and of how in her solitude, when she is not writing, she worries that she made up her and Meg’s love for each other. She knows this is not the case, but she still misses the letter that was taken from her, which she feels would prove the truth in her assertions.

Her narrative returns to her life with the Benham’s, where she describes an outing with Meg to Almack’s club. Frannie overhears the other maids talking about Olaudah, and how he and Meg got along very well and were very close but that he was thrown out of the Benham house. One of the ladies suspects that it was because Benham worried that Olaudah and Meg were having an affair. It is revealed that he is now a boxer under the name Laddie Lightning.

Later Frannie, asleep in Meg’s room, has a nightmare that she is one of the corpses back at Paradise. Upon waking, she and Meg talk about laudanum. Frannie confessing that she has never tried it. They move slowly closer to one another until Meg kisses Frannie and then pulls away.

Meg takes Frannie along with her to a party at the country house of Sir Percy, Benham’s brother. Frannie watches the guests and tries to imagine them enslaved, feeling angry at the luxury slavery has bought them. She slips away from the party and Meg follows her. Meg talks to her about the ridiculousness of Benham’s family until Frannie confesses she wants to talk about their kiss. Meg says she should not have done it, but Frannie tells her she reciprocates. Meg says that it wasn’t her first time with another woman and Frannie suspects Hephzibah Elliot. They embrace each other, slightly undressing before returning to the party.

In the carriage ride back from Sir Percy’s house Meg is tense around Benham. Back at the house Benham requests to speak to Meg in the library and Frannie goes down to the kitchen. Linux says that the cat is missing, implying that Frannie took it. Frannie asks how she could have hurt the cat as she was miles away and denies the accusation. Frannie goes to Meg in her room, and the two have sex. Meg asks that Frannie sleep in her room every night. Frannie worries whether she agrees as Meg’s lover or her maid.

Meg tells Frannie about a painting her mother did, which Benham will only allow to hang in her room as it is too risqué. Benham summons Meg to have breakfast with him, and Frannie washes herself with Meg’s soap alone in the room. The chapter ends with a transcript of a conversation between Benham and Frannie, where he asks how much laudanum Meg takes and Frannie avoids answering.

Frannie moves her things to Meg’s room, and Pru warns her not to let Meg grow bored of her. Benham sends a box of sweets to Meg, and Meg tells Frannie that he always plays at being a husband when he stays out all night. She says she has never asked where he goes. Frannie doesn’t like to think about Benham having a mistress or the fact that she is now Meg’s mistress. They go down to breakfast with Benham, both reluctant of them reluctant. Benham yells at Meg, making her drop her egg on the floor. He then forces her to eat it anyway before leaving. Back in Meg’s room Frannie asks if Benham hurts her. Meg says that he doesn’t hurt her with fists and that he doesn’t hurt her now, though he did before. Frannie lets the subject drop with reluctance.

Benham summons Frannie to him. He tells her all about how he is running his family’s sugar plantation like an English tenant farm. He believes this is the solution to the problem of slavery. Frannie realizes he wants her there just to contrast his style with Langton’s. She discerns that he just wants a tale of suffering from her. Frannie brings up breakfast which angers Benham. She tells him there’s “no reforming what’s already rotten” (156). Frannie steals Benham’s journals about her.

Frannie wonders about Benham and Meg’s sexual relationship, but Meg tells her they abstain because Benham does not want children. Pru tells Frannie that Meg is considered too eccentric and too French. Meg later tells Frannie that Benham married her before he realized how odd she was and never forgave her for it.

Meg decides to plan a lecture series on the question of variety in humans, wanting to turn Langton and Benham’s own question against them. One day that Meg spends in the garden, Frannie takes a pair of scissors from the kitchen against Linux’s wishes. She uses them to make Meg a flower crown. As they sit, Frannie asks if they are in love. Meg says it’s the surest answer to their madness. As they embrace, they hear a sound and realize Linux is looking down on them from a window.

The chapter ends with more of Linux’s testimony, where she states that she believes Frannie was threatening Meg with the scissors.

Olaudah Cambridge is giving a talk that Meg insists upon going to. Frannie is struck by the kinship she feels as she listens to Laddie talk. He says that when the anti-slavery society looks at him, they see all Black men, which is unfair. He talks about how even anti-slavery people want to compensate enslavers, and that this reinforces the idea that men can be property.

They go up to speak to Laddie after his talk, and Frannie feels uncomfortable. She asks him how long he was enslaved, accusing him of ideas over experience, while he is derisive toward the fact that she was kept in the house. Frannie thinks about how it is only Black men who get to speak, and only in the way that white people want them to. Hephzibah, who attended the talk with them, warns Frannie against being jealous.

Back at the house Frannie draws away from Meg, who later leaves an apology letter on Frannie’s pillow. This is the same letter that was taken from Frannie in prison. The chapter ends with a newspaper clipping about Laddie’s boxing win, emphasizing his race and his strength over his intelligence.

Meg sends Frannie to deliver a letter to Laddie inviting him to take part in her lecture series. He refuses angrily. Frannie antagonizes him, and he antagonizes her back saying that every Black person in London is a maid, whore, or prizefighter and that if they can find another option they should take it. Frannie accuses him of being a pimp because she saw a woman leaving his flat as she entered it. Laddie in turn accuses Frannie of having sold herself to Meg.

The chapter ends with an excerpt from one of Benham’s journals which tells of his disappointment in marriage, his regret of his sins, and of how he ordered Frannie to spy on Meg for him.

Meg begins to experience mood swings again, alternating between nervousness and reckless confidence. Frannie cares for her and tries not to think of Phibbah and Miss-bella.

The doctor, Fawkes, continues to attempt to treat Meg’s melancholy to no effect. Frannie herself has begun to develop an addiction to Meg’s laudanum. Frannie likes it because it takes away her memories. She has a nightmare of Langton that ends with Miss-bella calling her a monster. Meg and Frannie see Laddie one day, and Frannie wonders if the melancholy was sparked by him. She can’t stop her jealousy. Frannie continues to worry over Laddie and Meg’s history.

Hephzibah brings Laddie over to the Benham’s one day. This distresses Meg, who seems embarrassed and awkward around him. Benham walks in as they are visiting but does not react. Later, Frannie works on some embroidery for Meg while thinking about the visit. Benham and Meg argue over it. She appeases him by inviting him to sit with her. She brings up her lecture series, which Benham dislikes.

Frannie goes down to the kitchen, where she and Linux once again argue over Linux’s attitude. Pru warns Frannie against thinking Meg is her friend. The chapter ends with an excerpt from Benham’s journal. He writes of how he was upset by Laddie’s visit and how he has decided to allow the lecture series but only under his name, not Meg’s. He writes about his questioning of Frannie and of his suspicions that an incident with a child with albinism occurred at Paradise, which Frannie has reluctantly confirmed but will not speak of.

Meg grows more distant from Frannie. They both experience symptoms from their laudanum addiction. One day, Meg asks for Pru to bring up her tray instead of Frannie, which causes Frannie to panic. She searches Meg’s room and finds letters from Laddie hidden in the chest of birds eggs that belonged to Meg’s father.

In anger, Frannie sits down at Meg’s desk to write to Benham about what she found. Linux comes in and taunts her, holding the dress in which Frannie hid Benham’s copy of Candide. Frannie chases Linux, who goes to tell Benham what she has found. Benham, to Linux’s disappointment, does not turn Frannie out. Frannie knows it is because he wants information from her. Meg finds out that Frannie has been spying on her.